1926 | Exploration, Colonization
Exploration, Colonization
The rocket launched March 16 by physicist Robert H. Goddard is the first liquid-fuel rocket (see 1921; Oberth, 1923). Goddard sends his device on a 2½-second flight from a field on his Aunt Effie's farm near Auburn, Massachusetts. It travels 184 feet to one side at a speed of only 60 miles per hour and reaches a height of only 41 feet, but it demonstrates the practicality of rockets and convinces Goddard that rockets will one day land men on the moon. He writes in his diary, "It looked almost magical as it rose, without any appreciably greater noise or flame." Goddard continues his research and beginning in 1930 will get financial support from copper heir Harry Guggenheim, but although the U.S. government shows no interest in his work the German government will buy copies of Goddard's patent papers (see 1932).
Chicago-born explorer Lincoln (originally William Linn) Ellsworth, 46, makes the first aerial transit of the North Pole March 12, flying in the dirigible Norge accompanied by Roald Amundsen and Italian aeronautical engineer Umberto Nobile, 41. A mining engineer and scientist, Ellsworth persuaded his millionaire father last year to help finance an effort to fly over the pole, but although the two planes that took off from Spitzbergen reached 87° 44' North before being forced down by engine trouble, one plane was badly damaged in the landing, and it took 3 weeks to get the other one off the ice pack.
Winchester, Va.-born U.S. Navy explorer Richard Evelyn Byrd, 36, and Warrensburg, N.Y.,-born pilot Floyd Bennett, 35, take off May 9 from Spitsbergen in a trimotor Fokker monoplane, fly 700 miles to within 150 miles of the North Pole (they will claim to have circled it 13 times), and return in 15½ hours. Each is awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor; navigator Byrd is awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, and he is promoted to commander (see 1928). Explorer Umberto Nobile flies over the North Pole in a dirigible May 12.
Explorer Luigi Robecchi-Bricchetti dies at his native Pavia May 31 at age 71.